Trent Alexander-Arnold's name trends on Twitter as fans churn out brutal memes after Napoli defeat

Trent Alexander-Arnold's bid to be in Gareth Southgate's starting eleven for the upcoming World Cup just took another major hit.

The Liverpool right back has come under heavy fire for his underwhelming defensive performance in his side's 4-1 defeat to Napoli in the Champions League.

And it seems it's not just top-level pundits taking aim at Trent as the internet had a field day in making fun of his horror show defending.

That's right, in the wake of the Reds' demoralising defeat, Alexander-Arnold's name began trending on Twitter – and some of the memes online are absolutely brutal.

Trent. Are people gonna start being honest about him or what?

— Ste Howson (@MrStephenHowson) September 7, 2022

While his wand-of-a-right-boot means Trent can basically put the ball on a plate for his forwards at any given time, his work without the ball has often been questioned throughout his career.

And given Southgate's desire to select more defensive-minded players than you can shake a stick at in his England set-up, this doesn't bode well for Trent come Qatar.

His shakiness at the back has been on show since the Premier League's restart and it hit a new low on the European stage against Napoli.

Now the talented youngster has been called out by fans online, particularly for his static defending during the second and third goals.

Trent cannot be a real person pic.twitter.com/TYnTw9dVf9

— Free 8 (@unorthodoxcam_) September 7, 2022

For the second goal Liverpool conceded, he didn't track his man and simply stood there watching while Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa slotted the ball past Alisson.

Footage of the incident flooded social media with one person tweeting: "Trent cannot be a real person."

As for the third goal, one bloke watching from home zoomed in on Alexander-Arnold's lacklustre effort to stick a boot in and make a challenge.

And when the ball does finally hit the back of the net, Trent is nowhere to be seen as he casually strolls back into position.

"Trent what are you doing," the caption read as the clip racked up almost 30,000 likes on Twitter alone.

Trent what are you doing pic.twitter.com/Vr7AgYAoEX

— DSK (@0161Darren) September 7, 2022

But, as you can probably imagine, social media sleuths weren't done there and instantly started churning out some brutal memes after the referee blew his whistle for full-time.

Some of these are savage.

If Trent isn’t careful he’ll end up like dele alli

— Who Is Gręgg🇿🇼? (@greggislocallfc) September 7, 2022

If you still think that Trent Alexander-Arnold is better than Reece James in September 2022 none of your football opinions can be taken seriously.

I genuinely can’t think of a single attribute Trent has over James and I’m not even joking.

— ًEllis. (@UtdEIIis) September 7, 2022

Random Napoli youth players trying to get their clips of skilling Trent pic.twitter.com/V63E24nXW9

— RZ (@rxlfpacked) September 7, 2022

Trent when asked to defend pic.twitter.com/PhVuQXhNwP

— Lunihan (@LunihanV1) September 7, 2022

Whenever someone asks Trent to defend. pic.twitter.com/nj0Du0O2rH

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) September 7, 2022

The Pool fans who try to market Trent as a good defender need to call it a day man😭😭😭

— Chiddy 🇳🇬 (@chiddyafc) September 7, 2022

How Trent sleeps after dropping a stinker and DMing another girl on instagram pic.twitter.com/NmE9cvd8TI

— kismo (@kxsmo) September 7, 2022

Trent has a sly ego problem Ibr u can tell he cba to track back

— 🎱 (@Adot4k) September 7, 2022

Trent and Gomez defending pic.twitter.com/tz4tTEuBF2

— Rimedi (@r1medi) September 7, 2022

WAS TRENT TRYING TO DEFEND THERE 😭

— Trey (@UTDTrey) September 7, 2022

Trent playing Musical statues for the second goal pic.twitter.com/ajIPSzeC8W

— Evasive (@YT_Evasive) September 7, 2022

Trent attacking vs Trent defending: pic.twitter.com/OPPn9nnfEm

— FootballFunnys (@FootballFunnnys) September 7, 2022

Allison asking Trent to defend pic.twitter.com/bRQSG4Yh4d

— Deng™️ (@UTDDeng_) September 7, 2022

That aside, even some of the best players in history to don that famous crimson shirt were critical of Alexander-Arnold's efforts.

“Defensively, we can pick him apart,” Reds legend Robbie Fowler told BT Sport after the game.

“He doesn’t show the same desire getting back as he does going forward. That’s inexcusable.”

There's no doubting how talented the Liverpool fan favourite is, but he's starting to get found out defensively.

Besides, even offensively, three assists in his last 29 games isn't exactly show-stopping stats either.